Where Do They Speak THAT? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Iran

Luristan is in South West Iran, and the Luri language is part of the Iranian branch of the vast Indo-European family.

Answer: Germany

Called by the Germans Wendisch. The speakers call themselves Serbja - the same as the Serbia (where they speak Serbian) in the old Yugoslavia (which Slovenia used to be part of, but they speak Slovene there anyway, and they call it Slovenski). Sorbian is a Slavonic language spoken around Cottbus and Bautzen. Incidentally, Leipzig and Dresden have names that are of Slavonic origin.

Answer: Uganda

TOO obvious? Gander is in Newfoundland, and I'm not aware of a local language named after it. A speaker of luGanda (as it is sometimes called) is likely to be a muGanda, who is one of the baGanda people who live in buGanda (which is called uGanda in Swahili). Got it? I'll be calling to ask questions next week...

Answer: North west Africa

Don't ask me how to pronounce it. No, please don't... Spoken by about 3 million in Morocco and Algeria. Most of the men who speak it are bilingual in Arabic. Most of the women aren't. That tells me something...

Answer: Netherlands and Germany

Frisian is the closest relation to English (except for Scots!). It's spoken in Friesland in the Netherlands (of which Holland is just one bit) and on the north east coast of Germany.

Answer: Indonesia

Spoken by three and a half million on the island of Sulawesi. (Which is what used to be called Celebes. I wondered for a long time where that had gone.) Has an interesting 'replacement' for you singular (the you that = thou). French and English use the plural you (vous and you) to stand for tu and thou, while German uses Sie (= They with a capital). Bugis uses 'we'. Now come to think of it, so do some nurses... 'Now we're going to drink down this nice medicine, aren't we?'

Answer: The Balkans

Spoken by not very many people up in the mountains of Greece, Albania and Macedonia. (OK, the Former Yugoslav whatsit.) Gets very complicated in the Balkans, language-wise. Even worse in the Caucasus. Much simpler in the Wirral, where they speak English, with quite a few bilingual in Scouse. Aromunian is a Romance (descended from Latin) language, related to Romanian.

Answer: Northern Scandinavia

The Sami were called Finnar in Old Norse. The people we call Finns called them Lapps. The Finns call themselves Suomi - which is a word of Swedish origin. We used to call them Lapps, too, but those of us that like the music of Marie Boine call them Sami. You're wishing you hadn't started this quiz, aren't you....

Answer: The (Dutch) West Indies

It's a creole based on Spanish and Portuguese spoken in some islands that were Dutch colonies largely by people that are of African origins. Some of you may have been influenced by the Pap bit into thinking of the Papal States. You have my sympathy.

Answer: France

Including Provencal and related to Catalan, Occitan is spoken across a wide area of Southern France. Once the language of beautiful poetry and troubadours, it declined until Frederic Mistral gave it a boost. (You sound like a bad guide book, Baloo!) There are Occitan bands, and a movement for at least home rule for Occitania.

A 'Bal Occitan' is something like a ceilidh. Great fun. Been to one. Started at 10 in the evening after we'd performed, and was still going at 1 in the morning when we staggered off to where we were staying. (We were performing again at 10 the next morning!)

Answer: The Caucasus

A Turkic language, but from Dagestan in the Russian Federation. Can be spelled Qumuq, which makes it look even more Inuit (Eskimo). Which it isn't. Not even related to it. They speak a lot of languages in Dagestan.

Answer: The Maldives

An Indo-European language related probably to Sinhala (from Sri Lanka). The Maldives are probably the lowest nation in the world. Not morally, the highest point is only about 15 feet above sea level. It's loads of little islands made of coral and sand. Divehi is written in its own script - with some letters pinched from Arabic numbers and others being assorted wiggles.

This seems fairly recent as scripts go - dating from about 1700. Unless you know better?

Answer: Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti

Stamp collectors (and I mean REAL ones - not those who just collect First Day Covers and Unmounted Mint British QE II) will remember K, U and T. It's Tanzania, now, anyway. They may also remember the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas. (What a catchy name!) That's now Djibouti. Afar is a Cushitic language. (No, it's NOT what they speak a long way away from here.... I have in previous quizzes issued warnings about the jokes getting worse.) The clue? Lucy was the name given to some bones of Australopithecus afarensis found in Ethiopia because of the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. OK, perhaps it wasn't really helpful. Tough. Baloo doesn't GIVE points away, you know...

Answer: Zambia and Zimbabwe

Now I was kind there. I didn't put Polynesia as a choice. That's Tongan that's spoken IN Tonga. This one is called Tonga and is a Bantu language. Or possibly a Sintu language if you live in South Africa, where the word Bantu has some not very nice connotations. Pity, really. It just means people in a lot of African languages.

Answer: India and Pakistan

It's a sort of twin to Hindi - much the same as Croat and Bosnian are to Serbian. Different scripts, but a lot of other stuff the same. Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, but most people there have it as a second language. Many more people speak it in India, as a first language. Confusing? There probably are people in Liverpool who speak Urdu but it doesn't belong there like it does in India and Pakistan.

In Liverpool if you want an Urdu you go to the Ur Dresser and get yer Ur Dun (or even maybe Did).

Answer: The Philippines

Sounds like something from the Magic Flute. (No, that was Papageno!) Nothing to do with the Pampas, sorry. No, I'm not. It's an Austronesian language spoken in (surprise!) Pampanga in Luzon.

Answer: Madagascar

Strange place for a language related to an obscure bunch of languages from Borneo! There are other things spoken there as well, but Malagasy is the main one and the official language of Madagascar.

Answer: Southern India

No, it's not where the name Canada comes from! No connection at all. It's the language of Karnataka in India, which used to be known to the British as The Carnatic. Liverpool University has a load of Halls of Residence called Carnatic Halls. Which you probably didn't want to know, unless you're thinking of going there. Kannada is a Dravidian language, it's related to Telugu.

Answer: Bhutan

That's Euskara from the Basque area. A relation of Tibetan, Dzongkha has been set up as a national language for Bhutan. (Where? A little country between India and Tibet up in the Himalayas.) There's a lot of languages and dialects in Bhutan because of the deep valleys. Deep valleys mean high hills, and that means you can communicate up and down but not side to side. So they use Dzongkha as a standard to overcome this problem.

A bit like Urdu in Pakistan. Or English for the whole world...

Answer: China

A Turkic language, formerly of an Empire in the Mongolia region. The only state known to have adopted Manichaeism (look it up) as its religion. (Isn't it amazing what you learn in a Baloo quiz - and there's a perfect conversation stopper if you want one - or the ultimate quiz tie-breaker!) Not all the people of China speak Chinese, you know. Well, you did know about Tibetan (didn't you?, but then there's Yi, Buyi, Li, Miao, Naxi and many more.

Including Uighur.